Songoftheday 2/13/18 - There you are holding her hand, I am lost dying to understand...

"Can't Let Go" - Mariah Carey
from the album Emotions (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17

Today's song of the day is by Mariah Carey, who had returned triumphant in the fall of 1991 with her fifth consecutive #1 pop hit (out of five tries) with "Emotions". That song would be the title track of Mariah's sophomore effort, and the next single released from the set would be the dramatic break-up ballad "Can't Let Go". Written by Carey with producer Walter Afanasieff, the song would deftly showcase her range without going overboard with the vocal gymnastics. It would be a worthy successor to the second hit from her debut, "Love Takes Time", also produced by Afanasieff...

While "Can't Let Go" became Mariah's first American single to miss the top spot on the pop chart, it did climb to the runner-up position for a week in January of 1992. The single did spend three weeks at #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary/Easy Listening radio chart (matching her debut "Vision Of Love"), while also making it to #2 on their R&B genre list for two weeks. Internationally, the record peaked at #3 in Canada, and reached the top-40 in the UK (#20) and New Zealand (#21).

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Mariah bucked the trend and performed "Can't Let Go" live on Soul Train to promote the single...